Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos

The Right Honourable The Baroness Amos PC
Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 September 2010
Secretary-General	Ban Ki-moon
Preceded by	John Holmes
British High Commissioner to Australia
In office 1 October 2009 – 1 September 2010
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Helen Liddell
Succeeded by	Paul Madden
Leader of the House of Lords Lord President of the Council
In office 6 October 2003 – 27 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	The Lord Williams of Mostyn
Succeeded by	The Baroness Ashton of Upholland
Secretary of State for International Development
In office 12 May 2003 – 6 October 2003
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Clare Short
Succeeded by	Hilary Benn
Personal details
Born	13 March 1954 (1954-03-13) Georgetown, British Guiana
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	University of Birmingham University of Warwick University of East Anglia
Religion	Christianity

Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, PC (born 13 March 1954) is the eighth and current UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Before her appointment to the UN, she had been British High Commissioner to Australia. She was made a Labour life peer in 1997 and served as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council. When Amos was appointed Secretary of State for International Development on 12 May 2003, following the resignation of Clare Short, she became the first black woman to sit in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. She left the Cabinet when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister. She was then nominated to become the European Union Special Representative to the African Union by Gordon Brown. In July 2010 Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon announced Baroness Amos' appointment to the role of Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Early life

Amos was born in British Guiana (now Guyana), and attended Bexley Technical High School for Girls (now Townley Grammar School for Girls), Townley Road, Bexleyheath, where she was the first black deputy Head Girl. She then studied at the University of Warwick, the University of Birmingham and the University of East Anglia, and was awarded an Honorary Professorship at Thames Valley University in 1995 in recognition of her work on equality and social justice.

Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission

After working in Equal Opportunities, Training and Management Services in local government in the London boroughs of Lambeth, Camden and Hackney, Amos became Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission 1989–94.

In 1995 Amos co-founded Amos Fraser Bernard and was an adviser to the South African Government on public service reform, human rights and employment equity.

Other positions

Amos has also been Deputy Chair of the Runnymede Trust from 1990–98, a Trustee of the Institute for Public Policy Research, a non-executive Director of the University College London Hospitals Trust, a Trustee of Voluntary Services Overseas, Chair of the Afiya Trust, a director of Hampstead Theatre and Chair of the Board of Governors of the Royal College of Nursing Institute.

House of Lords

Amos was created a life peer in August 1997 as Baroness Amos, of Brondesbury in the London Borough of Brent. In the House of Lords she was a co-opted member of the Select Committee on European Communities Sub-Committee F (Social Affairs, Education and Home Affairs) 1997-98.

International Development Secretary and Leader of the House of Lords

Baroness Amos was made International Development Secretary after the incumbent, Clare Short, resigned from the post in the run-up to the US and UK invasion of Iraq. Although she ostensibly worked in development, she toured African countries who held rotating membership of the Security Council, encouraging them to support the attack. Despite her efforts, the UK was not successful in establishing a legal basis for the attack, which took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people.

Baroness Amos was made Leader of the House of Lords on 6 October 2003 following the death of Lord Williams of Mostyn, which meant that her tenure as Secretary of State for International Development lasted less than six months. Prior to her appointment as Secretary of State for International Development, Baroness Amos was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs on 11 June 2001, with responsibility for Africa; Commonwealth; Caribbean; Overseas Territories; Consular Issues and FCO Personnel.

Baroness Amos was the principal spokesperson in the House of Lords on International Development as well as one of the Government's spokespersons in the House of Lords on Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. She was previously a Government Whip in the House of Lords from 1998 to 2001 and also a spokesperson on Social Security, International Development and Women's Issues.

On 17 February 2005, the British government nominated Baroness Amos to head the United Nations Development Programme.

Non-governmental roles

Baroness Amos left the cabinet when Gordon Brown took over as Prime Minister from Tony Blair in June 2007. Gordon Brown proposed her as the European Union special representative to the African Union, but this job went to Belgian career diplomat Koen Vervaeke instead. She was a member of the Committee on Commonwealth Membership, which presented its report on potential changes in membership criteria for the Commonwealth of Nations at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2007 in Kampala, Uganda.

On 8 October 2008 it was reported that Baroness Amos was to join the Football Association's management board for England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup. This was described as a "surprise appointment", since she has no recorded interest in football (despite her interest in cricket) or any experience in similar work such as the 2012 Olympics bid.

On 4 July 2009 it was advised that Baroness Amos had been appointed British High Commissioner to Australia in succession to High Commissioner Helen Liddell. The Baroness took up the position in October 2009.

Honours

On 1 July 2010, Amos received a honorary Doctorate of the University from the University of Stirling in recognition of her "outstanding service to our society and her role as a model of leadership and success for women today." At the University of Birmingham Guild of Students (where the Baroness studied), one of the committee rooms, The Amos Room, is named after her for her services to society. She was also awarded honourary degrees of Doctor of Laws from the University of Warwick in 2000 and the University of Leicester in 2006.

Personal life

Amos is an enthusiast of cricket and talked about her love of the game with Jonathan Agnew on Test Match Special during the lunch break of the first day of the England v New Zealand test at Old Trafford in May 2008.

After resigning from the cabinet, Baroness Amos took up a directorship with Travant Capital, a Nigerian private equity fund launched in 2007. In the House of Lords Register of Members Interests she lists this directorship as remunerated. At launch over one third of Travant’s first equity fund came from CDC (a government-owned plc). CDC's investment decisions are taken completely independently of external influences (including its shareholder) and the decision to invest in Travant by CDC was taken before Baroness Amos was appointed to the board of Travant.

Baroness Amos has never married and has no children.

External links

• Biography at UNOCHA
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos on Charlie Rose
• Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Baroness Amos by Graham Brown-Martin, Trace Magazine

Political offices
Preceded by Clare Short	Secretary of State for International Development 2003	Succeeded by Hilary Benn
Preceded by The Lord Williams of Mostyn	Leader of the House of Lords 2003–2007	Succeeded by The Baroness Ashton of Upholland
	Lord President of the Council 2003–2007
Party political offices
Preceded by The Lord Williams of Mostyn	Leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords 2003–2007	Succeeded by The Baroness Ashton of Upholland
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Helen Liddell	British High Commissioner to Australia 2009–2010	Succeeded by Paul Madden
Preceded by John Holmes	Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator 2010–present	Incumbent